NZ does have earthquakes as NZ lies across 2 tectonic plates alpine fault southern alps   – Christchurch did have a major earthquake in February 2011 magnitude 7.0 and very sadly 185 people were killed.

The quake was caused by a rupture of a Faultline along the southern edge of the city and the city is still recovering now with many buildings damaged and major building projects needing to be built.

Although we lived there for some years, I couldn’t honestly say that I ever got used to the wobbles as I called them as it isn’t something that we experience in UK!

The balance is that it is such a beautiful quiet sparsely populated Island and things seem to be fine after 2011.

I chose to pop this image in the post as this is not an uncommon site in New Zealand where you can see land movement and at times there is a clear drop in the land and one area can be a lot lower than the adjoining land.

The situation in New Zealand is that it sits between the Pacific and the Australian tectonic plates and when these plates collide with each other a large force occurs which results in the fault line rupturing and then an earthquake occurs.

It is a force of nature that being English we are not familiar with and it is very unsettling to say the least!

Signs that an Earthquake may be about to happen are:

Stillness and animals behaving strangely

Rolling and rumbling noises

A sudden Jolt or a rolling sensation

In New Zealand the Waikato region considered to be generally less prone to suffer from earthquakes however we just have to remember that New Zealand is a volcanic country which still has active volcanoes and has suffered earthquakes in the last 20 years.